And after he did it, I was like, "you're seriously going to spend time out of your busy life to regularly post on the internet about how I lied about something?" And he said something about how he didn't believe that he had enough follow-through to post more than one time on this blog of his. So I started making some comment about how millennials don't follow through on things and then we ended up in the huge fight that we have once a week about millennials and how he claims that I actually am one and that I should be proud of that because something about innovation and snapchat and twitter and blah blah blah.

Usually when a millennial is talking all my mind hears is the sound of a grown man eating cereal in his parents' basement at 2:00 in the afternoon.

WHICH IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF STATEMENT THAT MAKES SKYLAR ANGRY, BY THE WAY.

But I really do think that they should make a new generation for my age group. Because although I was born in 1984 and I'm technically a millennial, I do not feel like I'm in the same generation as 24-year-olds. And I think it's because we just grew up in really different worlds.

I didn't grow up in a world with internet. Bob and Cathie introduced my family to the super slow world of dial-up when I was almost 17. And we hardly used it because it took forever, nobody could use the phone while someone was on the internet, and there were only like two websites anyway.

I didn't grow up in a world with cell phones. Bob had a brick that was for work only. We didn't touch it. It stayed in the car at all times. I don't even remember him using it. I didn't get my first cell phone until 2005, when I was 21 years old.

I didn't grow up in a world where we were hyper-aware of terrorism. There were tragedies of different sorts, but airport and venue security was basically nonexistent. 9/11 happened when I was a senior in high school, so I'm old enough to remember that the way the world looked before and after 2001 was totally different.

I didn't grow up in a world with social media. All interaction with my friends had to be face-to-face or through notes left in each other's lockers. If someone moved away, you basically never saw or heard from them again unless you were super vigilant about writing letters. I didn't even hear about social media until I was 21 when my friend Andrea created a Myspace account that I basically never checked and that probably still embarrassingly exists out there somewhere.

I just came to age in a very different world than the younger millennials out there and it feels wrong to be grouped in the same generation with them. And so, those of us born in the early and mid-80s need our own generation. I suggest we call it "Generation Leotrix." But I'm open to some other options. And in Generation Leotrix, we welcome all who don't fit in with the generation they were assigned because of their birth years.

As someone born in 1982, I have some of the same feelings as you regarding whether or not I am a millennial. I have some good news - we early 80's babies DO have our own generational name - the Oregon Trail Generation. https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/

I much prefer Oregon Trail Generation to Leotrix Generation! (Sorry, Eli, but gross.) I was born in 1986, and I refuse to be grouped together with these children. For exactly everything Eli said in this post.

I was totally gonna post that link about the Oregon Trail Generation! Cuz yeah, also born in '84 and definitely not a millennial. The only thing I have in common with millennials is being poor and having a lot of student loans.

I was born in 1987, grew up in a developing country, and a family that was always behind the mark with technology. I definitely identified with this article! Considering the technological leaps that have been made in my lifetime, I feel like the millennial banner has been stretched too far.

According to http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/ you could be either Generation X, Y or Millenial - so I say choose your generation!

Yes! I am a 1984-er also and I like the Oregon Trail Generation! I have also heard "Xennial" but I don't like that as much. Oregon Trail in school was pretty much my first introduction to computers and it changed my world! Plus I still tell people I hope they die of cholera when I'm mad.

I, too, feel misrepresented by my generation, but I'm supposedly a baby boomer. Born in 1960, all the good stuff was over before I got there. I was born the year the Howdy Doody show ended, was too young to remember the first astronauts, was in elementary school during Woodstock. All the great perks and jobs and optimism and stuff were over before I was in high school. I grew up in the oil crisis, the hostages in Iran, and Johnny Can't Read. I wouldn't fit in with the Oregon Trail generation, that's when my daughter was growing up. But I could happily join GenLeo, which the media will eventually shorten it to...

Gah. That picture of Leotrix was super awful. He's usually tiny and hiding craftily in normal size photos. I don't know if you've ever posted one so huge of him in all his terrible glory.

Hm. I'm a 1985 baby. When does Millennial end? I thought Millennials were people like us who can remember childhood pre-pervasive online world but were also still young enough (like HS or college) to embrace the new online experience more than Baby Boomers, per say. I'll have to go google this . . .

I totally get what you mean. I was born toward the end of Generation X, and I think that does apply to me, but I know a lot of earlier gen-xers would say that I grew up in a different world than they did.

But holy crap this post made me feel old.

I never saw anything connected to the internet until the summer after I graduated from high school. I got my first email address when I was a freshman in college, but I had no idea what it was or how to use it, so I just didn't. And it basically looked like this because you didn't just create your own address back then: 1xdf9drridsw0rdkddsw0rrhdpo!!$9ssiffh@buncharandomlettersthatmakeadomain.com

Apparently I am older than all y'all. I am a Boomer, but I'm not saying if I'm a beginning or ending Boomer.

I grew up in a world so much slower than this one, and I miss it dreadfully.

My grandchildren have to teach me how to use my new smartphone, computer, hell even my new DVD player. But, I teach them how to bake, crochet, and garden. I hope we achieve some kind of balance in the end.

You know - I always wondered how the defining years of a generation are determined. I'm part of Generation X and it was considered one of the smallest generations but a big part of that is that the time span is generally smaller than most other generations (lasting only about 10 years where most others span 20 years).

This post really got me thinking about whether technology and its effects really have shortened the time spans by which we gauge generations - I think you're right Eli (don't ever quote me on that) - a person born in 1984 really doesn't have the same personality shaping influences as a person born in 1990 these days.

You know there is already a generation for you, Generation X, millennials start with birth years in the 90"s and the late 80's are grouped between X and the 90's. You are still early 80's, so you are X, and based on your comments, even if you were late 80's you would still end up as X.

Leave it to Eli to make something that already has a solution a quagmire of pent-up concern and emotion.

That is a bunch of BS you just made up. No one born after 1985 has any business claiming to "not be a millennial". Only people during the second half of the 70s and first half of the 1980s have any claim to be an Xennial. Some of how you just seem to suffer from delusions of exceptionalism. Anything past 1985, especially LATE 1980s babies, are plain millennials or Gen Y. Most born between 1987 and 1990 have very similar tastes and habits compared to someone born in 1980-82.

Born in 86 and I'm not a millennial. I grew up without cell phones, didn't have the Internet until 15-16 but still didn't use it one a daily basis. I called my friends to hang out and asked out the girls I wanted to date in person. I'm still like that today.. If I feel it's of any importance I'll do it face to face. And also don't mind not checking my fb on a daily. And I don't care to use all the other social media platforms. I started working for my uncles construction company the summer after 7th grade and repeated it every summer until graduation and straight into fulltime. I don't expect anything handed to me unless I've worked for it and I also know how to show my elders respect. Alot of ghat was lost for the most part not long after me.